A new source of inspiration.....the rubbish bin!. W.i.p.

Not sure what the correct term for the little notches is on the end of the cylinder. They are obviously on the real item as a kind of locating device for when the cylinder revolves, so that the bullet chamber lines up with the barrel.
King billy pine is a particularly soft timber, forget about being able to dent it with a fingernail, this stuff you could dent with your eyeball.
It is also probably not the best timber in the world for carving end grain either. So these little locating notches had me a bit concerned that a real mess of a job could be made of them.
Realised after a session of "clutching at straws" that a dremel cut off wheel had about the right sized diameter to make the roughing out cuts. Sure they are meant to cut steel but it worked a treat on timber.
Attachment 330417
Made a few cuts for each notch and then chiseled out. This made for a pretty rough job. After another "straw clutching episode" I made up a little drum sander from an angle grinder locknut, cloth backed sandpaper, a modified 10mm bolt, and contact adhesive. To use in a cordless drill.
It worked a treat.....
Attachment 330421 Purist woodcarvers may wince and think this is cheating!, However what I'm making is more of a sculpture than a woodcarving. And as anyone who has studied sculpture will agree, "there are no rules in sculpture". Heck, I could just pay some other person to make the job for me and still be able to call it my artwork! But lets not go down that road right now.
Anyway next step for the cylinder is the bullets as I want the finished piece to look like a loaded gun. Have used celery top pine for these as I reckon with a bit of danish oil it will give a finish with a colour somewhere in the right ballpark with no other staining
.Attachment 330424 Pictured here from the business/projectile end
Attachment 330425 and here from the primer/detonator end.
It's really nice to be able to incorporate wood turning into a sculpture.

Looking good AB. The problem solving is half the fun don't you think?

'Heck, I could just pay some other person to make the job for me and still be able to call it my artwork! But lets not go down that road right now'.

Have you read Richard Sennet's book 'The Craftsman'? If not, when you feel like going down that road, he has some interesting thoughts on there being no great art without great craftsmanship and the notion that a great idea for a piece of art is not a great piece of art. Whilst I would agree with both sentiments I bet a thread on the subject would be well subscribed.

Philip.

The barrel posed a few challenges.
Was wondering first the best way to get the bore done.
Experience has shown that it's flamin hard to drill a neat accurate deep hole into endgrain.
So decided to ditch the idea of drilling and instead make the barrel from two halves.
Found it hard to get a 28mm half round router cutter but eventually found one online from Mc Jings.
So here is the two halves with a 28mm half radius cut into each of them....
Attachment 332526
Next step was to glue the two halves together. Before I did this I applied some old fashioned spirit stain to the half round routings so that the inside of the bore was quite black.
OK, missing a few pictorial explanations now but. The two halves were glued together, then run over a table saw, then a bandsaw, then turned and carved. The result ......
Attachment 332527Front view showing bore. Front sight still has to be added.
These two from the other end. The dowel or pin is turned and will locate the barrel in the frame of the revolver.
Attachment 332528
Attachment 332530
To turn that dowel I first turned up a plug to be a firm push fit in the bore end so that the barrel as a whole would turn true to the bore.
Here's a picture of the plug in the barrel...
Attachment 332531
Pretty happy with the progress so far. The biggest challenge is going to be the frame of the revolver, at the moment I'm tending towards using really good grade (marine) plywood.
Oh yeah, barrel is made from Sassafras.

Rules for wood carving or wood sculpture (what ever those are)?
Never. Always color outside the lines. Never drink downstream from the herd.
As you were, sir.

Hello, Artful Bodger!
You are really artful man!:2tsup:
May I see the result?

Enjoyable read so far. Looking forward to seeing the finished article.

Well after quite a hiatus, inspiration has dragged me back to this Ruger "Security Six" project.
Making the main body of the revolver has been on my mind for quite a while.
It would be ideal to make it from a really nice carving timber, however you would need a really big bit of it and due to the design of the guns body there would be some really weak points in the end job. (Lets face it, they make guns out of metal for a reason).
Noticed in the local hardware store before Christmas they had premium grade marine plywood 12mm x 2.4m x 1.2 m on special. Decided there and then that that's what the body of the revolver will be made from.
So, the following pictures show the body of the gun. It is made up from 4 layers of the 12mm plywood. The middle joint is not yet glued together so it is still in 2 halves. The 4 layers have 2 x 14mm dowels that go through each layer in strategic locations so that the layers, firstly 4, now 2 can be taken apart and re-assembled with accuracy.
The main outside shape of the body was bandsawn with relative ease. Prior to that though the inside shape of the trigger guard was jigsawed out,so the jigsaw had a flat surface to sit on. Bandsawing before jigsawing would have been a silly mistake. As it was the jigsaw, tended to cut unsquarely on the tight curves when it had a good flat surface to sit on.
There are a couple of tricky jobs yet. On this type of revolver when you want to change bullets the cylinder swings out away from the body of the gun so you have room to eject the old cartridges and put in new ones and as I want the finished item to look like it could indeed do that.....
well it poses a few challenges. However there is light at the end of the tunnel. Also there is a bit that sits behind the cylinder that basically stops the bullets falling out if you are shooting upwards. It will need to be turned, sliced in half and some more and fixed to the body.
Oh yeah, there is also the trigger and the hammer which must be done before the 2 halves are glued together.
Afterthought, plywood is not very nice to carve.
Attachment 342542
Attachment 342543
"Quote
morfey_russia

Hello, Artful Bodger!
You are really artful man!http://d1r5wj36adg1sk.cloudfront.net.../2thumbsup.gif
May I see the result?
Unquote"

By the way, Morfey in Russia.
Thanks for the compliment. Surprised there are folk in Russia who read this forum. Guess I shouldn't be really, globalisation and all.
I will post the final result when it's eventually finished.
Noticed on one of your posts you made a kind of trophy for a martial arts club.......
Recently our prime minister (Tony Abbot) wanted to "shirtfont"(or beat up) your prime minister (Vladimeer Putin).
I would have thought our Tony would make a meal of your Vladimeer in hand to hand combat but one of my friends said he'd put his money on Putin in a fight any day of the week.
What do you think?

This job has been collecting a bit of dust for a while, however a recent spurt of activity has resulted in a bit of progress.
The handgrips are the only part of the finished item that will look like timber.
The following shots show various parts with various finishes. The goal is still to make a scaled up revolver that looks like the real deal.
Obviously there is still more to do.....
Attachment 351015Attachment 351016Attachment 351017Attachment 351018Attachment 351019Attachment 351020Attachment 351021Attachment 351022Attachment 351024Attachment 351025

Boy! this project is dragging on like the proverbial.
Anyway, got the grips sorted.
Attachment 353096Attachment 353097

Nice checkering, should really add to the finished project.

Should have finished this a long time ago however had a major catastrophe with the finish. Got everything dyed with old fashioned spirit dye. The first 2 coats of lacquer went on a treat. However when it came to the 3rd and last coat the lacquer bubbled and wrinkled before my eyes. A huge disappointment!
Got caught out by the cold weather we had a few months ago. It did say on the spray can not to use under 15 degrees C and I was aware of that. Even took the components inside the house to dry out. Didn't leave it long enough it seems and the second coat was not cured enough for the final one to bond properly to.
Had to sand back all the lacquer and start again. To make matters worse the old fashioned spirit dye is no longer available so I had to settle for Aniline dye which does not seem as good.
Any way today I got round to gluing the bullets into the cylinder then the cylinder into the body, as well as gluing the front and rear sights on. Still have to glue the barrel to the body (hopefully tomorrow) and then the handgrips.
Will have to make a base for the finished item to sit on as well. There are threaded inserts in the bottom of the handle so that it can be fixed to a suitable base with bolts/screws. That will be the easy bit.
Attachment 361282Attachment 361283Attachment 361284Attachment 361285

Beautiful workmanship - great stuff :2tsup: